A sign of the times

When Daniel comes home from school I always ask him about his day. The first response is "fine". Minutes later he will share a tidbit about his day. In the evening when we read we converse about the book we are reading and thoughts spill over. A topic we read about evokes a memory and then Daniel tells me his stories about his day. Daniel was sharing with me the news about his teachers. The specials teachers had to resort to teaching regular classes because of budget cuts and school running out of funds. He witnessed  his art teacher dropping off her regular class at her old art class. His voice trailed sadly " I bet she misses it" I could hear the empathy in his voice." She loved teaching art and she loved her class." I looked at my son and I felt the way he did. We felt sadness. I realized how children observe everything. Children know by watching. Children know by feeling. The pain that they see all around them teaches them the hard reality life can be. It teaches them compassion . It teaches them lessons learned too soon.